WWE wrestler Zack Ryder holding out for big win

Long Island, N.Y., native Zack Ryder was skeptical when told he may be on the card for the 1,000th production of WWE Raw on July 23. Professional wrestling is a tough business, and Ryder is well aware that such cards can be re-shuffled as a big event draws closer.

For example, before our telephone interview, Ryder was expected to wrestle Dolph Ziggler on Saturday when the WWE Raw Live tour makes a stop in Lubbock at the United Spirit Arena. Saturday’s bigger attractions undeniably are John Cena, Big Show, David Otunga, R Truth and more.

Still, Ryder’s promised to be an interesting match, if only because, “Dolph and I go back a long way, and I can’t deny that there is bad blood between us.”

Hours later, however, Ziggler’s name had disappeared.

A revamped card emailed by WWE publicists reveals that Cena is still coming, but Ryder instead will battle Michael McGillicutty in Lubbock.

Mind you, just thinking about being part of the 1,000th Raw telecast excited Ryder. “That’s going to be a really big deal,” he noted. “Every superstar will be there, and you know the WWE will do whatever it takes to make it special. One thousand shows is a huge accomplishment.”

Ryder’s resume includes accomplishments of his own.

They begin with his years fighting tag-team with Curt Hawkins. After being told to fight on his own, Ryder defeated Ziggler in a bout for the WWE’s United States Championship.

“That was huge for me,” Ryder recalled. “It was something a lot of people did not think would happen. It was unbelievable.”

Ryder later would lose that title to Jack Swagger, and of course is famished for an opportunity to win the championship belt back.

Such an opportunity is not likely to arrive, though, until he can attract more attention from the WWE brass.

Ryder did devise an original way to attract attention in February 2011, an idea that worked better than anyone expected. He took advantage of social media.

“Back then,” he said, “nothing was happening for me. I wasn’t on TV much, I was not getting noticed and I was worried that I might get cut.”

So he decided to reveal his goofy personality via a weekly youtube.com series he titled “Z! True Long Island Story.”

Suddenly, Ryder is on the Internet, bragging and overacting for laughs. He closes many episodes by telling fans, “Take care. Spike your hair.” Fans love it when he introduces a new “broski,” and his other catch phrase is, “Woo. Woo. Woo. You know it.”

Plus he makes certain fans remember to keep up with him on Facebook and Twitter.

Followers love his chats about the WWE, and the way he makes a fool of himself over such divas as Eve.

He still wrestled to win; that never will change. But he became an easily remembered, goofy, carefree, “woo woo woo” wrestler, a weekly victim of his own pranks. WWE officials had to take note of the Ryder Revolution. They could not ignore his show’s 11 million online views. Even the WWE now sells “Broski” T-shirts and headbands.

That said, Ryder, 27, questions whether his silly YouTube show, designed to merely attract attention, has “perhaps jumped the shark.”

Increased name recognition results in better, televised WWE matches, he said. “I need a new approach. Actually, all I need is one more big win, over a big name opponent.

“That’s the opportunity I’m looking for.”

Ryder — real name Matthew Cardona — was born in 1985 in Merrick, N.Y. He never wanted to be anything but a professional wrestler. On most Halloweens, he dressed up as Hulk Hogan.

He said, “Pro wrestling was not as cool in junior high and high school. That’s when my friends grew out of it and wanted to become other things. Not me.

To please his mom and dad, he attended Nassau Community College, near home.

But he said, “It was always a joke. My major was liberal arts, which basically meant nothing. I went to college only so my parents would pay for wrestling school.

“They’ve supported me ever since.”

He and Hawkins won numerous tag-team championships, and in 2007 became the youngest WWE tag-team champions in history when they defeated Matt Striker and Marcus Cor Von.

“We even went to the same wrestling school (New York Wrestling Connection) on Long Island. We were rarely apart. We knew each other since we we were kids, and we fought together for years.”

Ryder is considered one of the WWE’s hardest workers, in and out of the ring. Perhaps some Lubbock gym rats will be surprised when Ryder walks in for a workout Saturday morning.

Some may consider him a popular underdog, but Ryder also recently made his way back into the WWE’s top 25 Power Rankings.

“I don’t want to toot my own horn, because everyone in the WWE works really hard,” said Ryder. “But I also have an extra initiative. I hope things play out again for me. I always dreamed of becoming not just another WWE superstar, but the very best, one of the top guys in the WWE.